kerrykatiecakes

 My first great-grandson, Vito, is my inspiration for trying touches of embroidery on photographs.  II attended a class at the Vulcan Art Society where the instructor showed us techniques, tips, etc. and it was a lot of fun.  This beautiful photo of Vito seemed the perfect way to try it out and I did several on both black and white and colour to gift to the proud parents, grandmother - my daughter-in-law - and the other great-grandmom   The basic technique is to first print out the photo and decide on a design.  You place the photo on a piece of styrofoam or cardboard and use a needle to punch small holes where your needle needs to pierce the fabric to execute the stitches.  You can do this as you go along which allows you to adjust your desired design as you work. Then simply embroider away using the stab method and watching your tension so you don't damage the photo.  Chain stitch, stem stitch, french knots and spider web roses work very well. T...

  As confused as I get with my i-phone and technology in general, getting back into my old blog so I can update and edit out all the rabbit holes I went down while dealing with chronic painis the worst.  This is a test to see if I have actually managed to sign back in.

 I finally finished my "Covid Project"!  I worked on Elizabeth Almond's beautiful blackwork sampler design, "Save the Stitches" for much longer than I would like to admit...  I have to say though that it was very satisfying every step of the way.  I have not been able to concentrate on stitching in any significant way for some time now due to chronic pain and the dullness that the pain meds cause but having finished this piece gives me hope for my stitching future.  I also love the framing which was lovingly done by MJ of "Art Effects" in High River, Alberta.

 Well, two actually.  The question came up as to what word you would choose for the coming year.  One suggestion I really like is focus but it is not quite right and sounds a bit chiding to me.  What I really needed was the opposite of Procrastinate and found this online... If to procrastinate is "to put off doing something," then its antonym is  anticipate  — "to deal with beforehand." So you can say the opposite of procrastination is anticipation. If you can live with more than one word, a clearer antonym of procrastination is being proactive. I like the positive sound of anticipate but proactive sounds a bit more forceful which might be better since I really need to take myself in hand here.  So, I will take a page from the book of people who get married and hyphenate their surnames.  My word for the year will be Anticipate/Proactive.

  I have decided to keep a daily stitching journal here this year.  It was a little challenge from Virtual Threads, the online chapter of EAC (Embroidery Association of Canada.   Another challenge I have decided to accept is the usual UFO (Unfinished Projects) challenge but more on that later. I will use this little stitching image to easily identify my Stitching Journal Entries.  This will not be limited to projects with a threaded needle, but will include other projects such as the thrummed mittens I am currently struggling with because honestly, I find them a lot more difficult than any embroidery.

com·ment /ˈkäment/ Learn to pronounce noun plural noun:  comments a verbal or written remark expressing an opinion or reaction. "you asked for  comments on  the new proposals" I think I have figured out how to fix the comment section so if anyone is actually commenting, the comments should come through now.  Of course, if no one is commenting....never mind.  lol

It felt like spring today!  Winter has seemed so long this year and even though I know I am deluded to think winter is really over, how can you resist believing the warmer weather is here to stay?   Last spring I decided to "get into bees" and set up a hive and ordered a box of bees.    Several days before the bee package was due to arrive, I fell and broke my back - no spinal cord damage but two crushed vertebrae.  So, when the call came that the bees had arrived I was unable to drive to pick them up and my poor, unsuspecting husband had to go off to get them.  I should hasten to add at this point that he was definitely NOT interested in getting into bees.     He was even less interested in driving home for an hour with a mesh box full of approximately 10,000 annoyed honeybees in the back seat.  I have to say he is a good sport.  So, he got the queen and her attendants all situated in the hive and I have had very li...

Wow, has it really been 4 years since I posted?!  Well, I'm back. A lot has happened, lots to catch up on...  I persevered this evening and figured out how to get back into my blog - felt the urge to start a Covid Diary.  I hope everyone who used to follow my blog is well and being safe.  More tomorrow! Kerry

So, here it is... finished!  Once again, this was a workshop taught by Kim Beamish.  I love her projects- they are such fun stitches.  Managed to frame this one myself with a thrift store frame complete with matts that I repurposed and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I will be stitching this again because I messed up several times and want to do it again and get it right.  Even with the mistakes I made though - I love it!

This is the photo after lesson two is completed.  The satin stitch sections are complete and the stitching for the water.  Very little left to do!

I signed up for an online workshop being taught in Virtual Threads.  There are three lessons and this is the work I did on lesson one.  The project is a whitework landscape designed and taught by Kim Beamish and I am really enjoying it.  Not too much exciting in the first lesson to look at - the sky is done and some outlines for the other portion.

Finally posting a photo of the only jack-o-lantern I got made this year.  Cheating by putting the name in the title of the post but, yes, it is supposed to be Jim Morrison of The Doors.  I made this one for my son - making it for him has been on my Hallowe'en to-do list for more years than I like to admit but this year I actually got it done!  Just a bit of fun to share...

I have been working on this embroidered baby quilt for the last six months!  I could not believe how much embroidery was on it once I started.  It looked so simple with the stamped design and consisted of mostly large cross stitch but it took me forever!  I started soon after I found out my son and daughter-in-law were expecting and managed to finish it two weeks after my new grandson was born.  My excuse for that is that little Lucas arrived three weeks early so I was actually done before he was expected to arrive.  Since I finished this, I am totally immersed in small stitching projects which require me to use my glasses and magnifier and are tiny enough to finish in a couple days - sort of a backlash from this endless stamped embroidery! This is my gorgeous grandson, Lucas.  This photo was taken while he was still in hospital.  What a sweetie, eh?!  He was three weeks old yesterday and Mom and Baby are doing very well.  He is a bit ti...

I did these rows of stitching awhile back on a round robin piece and said I would use them again.  Well, here they are! As sometimes happens in the best of families, occasionally a round robin goes awry.  This is what happened last year in a round robin..  One of the participants failed to forward another's piece home to them and after a year of pleas, it appears the original piece is lost for good.  This does not happen often but when it does, it breaks my heart.  It has happened to me and I know how much it hurts. So, to console the owner of the piece and make it up to her we have started another piece around the rotation again, duplicating as much of the original stitching as we can.  I was not in the original rotation so am stepping in in place of the person who failed to send the piece on.  I really enjoyed doing this lovely bit of sampler pattern again.

It seems like I am getting a few little things done lately - very small things!  This is a little cross stitch butterfly stitched onto perforated paper.  It is part of a larger project that a group of us are collaborating on.  The photo does not show that it is done on gold perforated paper so it has a bit more bling factor than it appears here.  I can't help thinking they would make nice little pins.

 The counted thread round robin I was in on EAC Virtual Threads is done now.  I did my work on the last two pieces and received my piece back. These butterflies are what I added on this one.  I was a bit disappointed in my contribution to this one.  If you click on the photo of the entire piece below you can see all the really lovely techniques that had already been added.  Obviously, the theme for this piece was butterflies! This piece had a theme of things you would find in a garden and we were leaving space in the centre for a favourite quote.  I added my favourite flowers to this one - a couple of sweet peas. Last but certainly not least, I received my piece back.  My theme was Hallowe'en and I was looking for a sampler style piece I could use as a bell pull in my holiday decor.   I am very pleased with all the fun motifs everyone embroidered for me.  I asked for some space to be left at the top and bottom ...

Well, my resolutions are very different this year!  Here goes... 1. To buy no more stitch supplies unless I need them to finish an ongoing UFO.  This may be unrealistic, so I will make a backup - no more than one purchase a month. 2. To work exclusively on UFOs - again slightly unrealistic but I will finish two UFOs at least for every new item I start. 3. MAJOR DE-STASH!  This one is already started and there are currently about ten boxes sitting by the front door waiting to go to the Salvation Army Thrift Store when I find someone who will take them for me.  I have done in my shoulder so can't carry them myself right now. You know this is serious stuff because there are no photos in this post.  I don't believe in posts without photos so if a post is words only they are hopefully words to live by. As I finish the UFOs I will post lots of photos and also ones of works in progress - as soon as I figure out how to stitch with only one arm while hopped up on ...

 I found this cloth at the local thrift store and was charmed by the hardanger motifs on it.  I think it was a cloth napkin but not entirely sure.  It had stains on it but nothing near the motifs so it was fair game for upcycling in my eyes.  One corner had the larger hardanger motif - very nicely stitched.  Kitty corner to that motif was this smaller one which was a nice compliment to the other.  The edges of the cloth were nicely finished and fringed so I decided how large I wanted it and added nun stitch to the unfinished sides to create a stable fringed edge all the way around.  A bit of felt and silk ribbon from the stash and I had a nice needlebook. I used the smaller motif and more nun stitching to create a scissor fob using stash threads to create the twisted cord and the tassel.  It made a nice little gift for a stitching friend!

Believe it or not, I am finally catching up here!  The advantage to having given up on housework during the renovations seems to be more stitching time - yay! So, another round robin project caught up and mailed off.  I found some 17th century stitching patterns from an old issue of Linen Quarterly, part of a sampler there, and used those so here is what my addition looked like...  It was a lovely stitch and I actually think I will do the same bands on another sampler round robin I am involved in - I liked stitching it that much! This is how the round robin project is shaping up so far.  The eyelet border was started by the person whose project it is and will be completed by her at the end.  Do check out the lovely band of needlewoven trees someone added at the bottom - they are to die for!

 I wonder if it is only Canadian kids who say that - H-E-double hockey sticks?  Anyway, one way or another, it has been renovation hell around here the last couple weeks! Here is "the Man" taking up the original flooring in the great room downstairs.  Since the church was built in the very early 1900's, these boards have seen over 100 years of use and they didn't owe anybody anything.  We had them refinished about 20 years ago but there wasn't enough wood left to sand them down again.  So, up they all came...then the paper lining under them, and all the dirt that had seeped down over 100 years.  So, if you ever gave any thought to where all the topsoil blew away to during the Dirty Thirties, wonder no more - it was all under my floor boards!  After this was done, the Man laid the new subfloor down.  The plan now is to wait until the walls are all repaired, washed and painted before the new flooring goes down.  Hopefully this will all ha...